How much grain will go to waste this harvest in Poland? Which crops will have the most crops to harvest?
- How much cereal will be harvested in Poland during the 2024 harvest?
- How many combine harvesters will take to the fields?
How much cereal in the 2024 harvest?
Among cereals, winter wheat is the leader, with an area of 2.3 million hectares sown. In second place when it comes to winter crops is winter triticale (1.1 million ha). There are approximately 0.7 million ha of rye in Poland and 0.3 million ha of winter barley. This gives a total area of approximately 4.5 million hectares of winter cereals. Over 50 percent of this area is winter wheat.
There are much fewer spring cereals. The area is estimated at approximately 1.2 million hectares. Of the “spring” cereals, oats account for approximately 0.5 million ha. The area of spring barley is similar to the sown area of winter barley (about 0.3 million ha). Next we have cereal mixtures (about 0.2 million ha), spring wheat (0.2 million ha) and spring triticale (0.1 million ha).
In total, the combine harvesters will cover approximately 5.7 million hectares of cereals.
The rapeseed area has remained at a similar level for years. This year, approximately 1 million hectares of this crop are to be mowed.
If we add up winter and spring crops, it will turn out that wheat will be obtained from an area of 2.5 million hectares. Most of the fresh grain will go to the market. Cereal mixtures are generally intended for feed purposes. Barley, in turn (winter and spring barley combined), will be obtained from 0.6 million ha. However, the purpose of the goods will be varied, because we will have goods for various production purposes (both for feed and, among others, for brewing).
Of course, the combines will have much more work, because there are also other crops to harvest during the harvest. Here, a large group will include, among others: lupins.
How many combine harvesters will be working this harvest?
If we assume that there are less than 167,000 combine harvesters in Poland, it turns out that there are approximately 34 ha of cereals to be mown per one combine harvester. Of course, this is a huge simplification, and such an average has little to do with the truth. Of these combines, thousands will work on small areas, often mowing less than 10 – 20 ha during harvest. This, of course, applies to older machines and smaller farms that have their own machines, but value independence and do not go out for services. New combine harvesters mow several hundred hectares a year. But there is also no shortage of smaller Bisons, and although they are being replaced (also on smaller and medium-sized farms) by used machines (often Claas Dominators), they are still a regular sight during national harvests.
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